Chapters (65)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty–one
- Twenty–two
- Twenty–three
- Twenty–four
- Twenty–five
- Twenty–six
- Twenty–seven
- Twenty–eight
- Twenty–nine
- Thirty
- Thirty–one
- Thirty–two
- Thirty–three
- Thirty–four
- Thirty–five
- Thirty–six
- Thirty–seven
- Thirty–eight
- Thirty–nine
- Forty
- Forty–one
- Forty–two
- Forty–three
- Forty–four
- Forty–five
- Forty–six
- Forty–seven
- Forty–eight
- Forty–nine
- Fifty
- Fifty–one
- Fifty–two
- Fifty–three
- Fifty–four
- Fifty–five
- Fifty–six
- Fifty–seven
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgments
- Also by Becky Masterman
- About the Author
- Newsletter Sign-up
Carlo nodded. “I need to get the telescope out here. It’s awkward to carry because of the diameter. You have to sort of hold it out from your body. It makes it heavier than it actually is.”
“Let me help,” Jerry said. “It might not be as heavy as it looks, and I’m stronger than I look.”
Carlo welcomed the help, and I wondered for a moment why he hadn’t asked me. Then I looked doubtfully, not at the man but at his dog. “Tell you what,” I said, “I’ll get the pugs back in the house while you walk around to the front gate. Achilles here can come into the yard that way and make nice slowly.”
Al and Peg had meanwhile been up on their hind legs, front paws on the concrete ledge, already making nice with a very placid Achilles. While Achilles wandered off with his human companion around to the front gate, which Carlo had opened for them, I herded our guys in through the back door and shut it. They were not so content, but amused themselves by snotting up the glass while they watched Achilles take over their territory, methodically going from sage to planter to wall to birdbath, marking each. With his right rear leg missing he didn’t have a problem balancing on his starboard side.
Jerry had put Achilles’s leash down on the patio table, and took a handkerchief out of his back pocket. He wrapped it around the handle of the telescope, saying his hands were a little sweaty, and he got a better grip that way. He and Carlo lowered it to the ground. Then they carried first the tripod and then the scope out to the pad, where they counted three and swung it up to the tripod, jiggling it a bit until it popped into place. The man wiped his hands and put the handkerchief back in his pocket as Carlo thanked him and asked if he’d like a coffee.
The couple invited him to have coffee. Well, Carlo DiForenza did. The wife looked a little put out, like she had better things to do or didn’t think much of the bum in her yard. That’s right, he thought, she was one of those people he’d heard about, Saddlebrookians or some such up this way, who had some money and wanted to distance themselves from those who did not.